


saturdays

by loaf-of-toast (vagarius)



Category: My Babysitter's A Vampire
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Light Angst, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-18 11:10:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19333357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vagarius/pseuds/loaf-of-toast
Summary: There's a reason they hang out on Fridays.or: Benny and his dad, from Ethan's eyes





	saturdays

**Author's Note:**

> so this?? happened???

"Dudes," Rory says, plugging in his controller from home as Benny and Ethan try to see the screen over his head, "Why don't we ever hang out on Saturday nights?"

Benny's character abruptly falls off the map. As Ethan's character dances on the screen to his win, he replies, "Benny goes to his dad's on Saturday nights."

"Oh." Rory looks oddly contemplative for a moment, then says, "We should totally play _Knights Online_ then! I _rule_ on the PC." Evidently done fiddling with his controller, he plops himself on the couch next to Benny, and it is way too squished to all be on the couch together like they're eight again, but Ethan understands the sentiment.

(Ethan gets demoted to the floor, eventually - he lost in rock-paper-scissors, and apparently host-privileges are nullified after you agree to competition - but he doesn't mind too much, leaning back on their legs and hearing them scream attack stats over his head.

There's a reason they hang out on Fridays.)

 

 

 

"E?" Benny whispers, in the dark of Ethan's room on that Friday night, "Do you want to meet him?"

Ethan simply blinks at Benny, then upon realizing Benny likely can't see him replies, "Huh?"

"My dad," Benny elaborates. _Oh._ "Not tomorrow, obviously, since I know Jane has a thing and you're supposed to house sit and probably want to do your homework like a good student and – "

"B," Ethan interrupts. "Of course I do." After a moment, he amends, "As long as you want me there."

Benny remains silent for a full minute before saying, "I do. Just. Not tomorrow, okay?"

"Not tomorrow," Ethan promises. "Now go to sleep, B."

"Mm," Benny hums, rolling over on the mattress pad Ethan had gotten just for him after he had stayed over for so many nights, just like this, curled up on Ethan's bedroom floor.

Ethan rolls over on his own bed as his friend's breath steadies, the soft _inhale-exhale_ eventually lulling Ethan to sleep.

 

 

 

"Is it weird that I live with my Grandma?" eight-year-old Benny had wondered aloud.

Ethan had peeked out from under Benny's desk, hands still tangled in the wires that lay under it. "A little," Ethan had answered honestly, then added, "But that's probably just because I don't."

Benny had frowned, and it had made Ethan frown, too. "Wouldn't that mean most people think it's weird? Everyone I know lives with their parents, not their _grandparents."_

Ethan frowned harder in thought. "Does it matter if it's weird?"

Benny shrugged. "I guess not."

Benny had still seemed down, after that, but had managed to smile at Ethan's questioning look, so Ethan had gone back under the desk, connecting and reconnecting wires, thoughts drawn back to the task at hand.

 

 

 

Benny leaves Ethan's house Saturday afternoon, as he always does.

("We usually go get dinner together," Benny had said on one of these afternoons, "but I _always_ forget to pack an overnight bag before then, so I have to go back to my house and pack one." A pause, and then: "I guess I'm just used to having stuff already here.")

They had slept through breakfast and partially rough-housed through lunch, then had fiddled with Ethan's computer until a text from Benny's grandma warned him that he was cutting it close yet again.

"Not today," Benny reminds him as he's about to leave, "but someday."

"You do realize how cheesy that sounds, right?"

The tense lines that hadn't quite left Benny's face since they woke up that morning finally fade, and Ethan feels some of his own subconscious tension fade as well. "Got to keep my skills sharp for the ladies, you know?"

Ethan laughs, then exaggeratedly rolls his eyes. "Of course," he says. "What would they do without you, B?"

It's Benny's turn to laugh. "Drop dead, that's what." He pushes his hair back with one hand and juts his hip out ridiculously. "It's not my fault I'm _drop-dead_ gorgeous."

Benny holds the pose for a few more seconds, and then the two of them both break into giggles, just long enough for Ethan's cheeks to start hurting. Benny rushes out, after that, waving as he runs down Ethan's driveway and around the block.

"Not today," Ethan repeats to himself, "but someday."

Ethan supposes they both have a promise to keep.

 

 

 

Ethan's life has always been blessed with constants. His mom's lunches. His dad's praise. His sister's wittiness. Family dinners, spent awkwardly but _together,_ and Ethan has learned to cherish it. To appreciate the constants.

Benny's life, as far as Ethan could tell, has been blessed with very few. One of these constants is Ethan.

Another one is Rory.

"Rorster!" Benny greets, rather mockingly, but Rory eats it up with a wide a grin.

"If it isn't the B-man," Rory greets back, stepping out of the doorway to let the two of them in. "And his trusty sidekick, uh… E-money!"

"Hello Rory," Ethan says, feeling that at least one of them needs to be the calm one. "And who says _I'm_ the sidekick?"

"Um, the _Rorster_ did," Rory replies, walking further into the house. "What kind of snacks do you guys want?"

"Chips!" Benny yells, likely already setting up one of Ethan's borrowed games in Rory's living room. "And not those nasty ones."

"Which nasty ones?" Rory calls back, already grabbing the bag he knows Benny likes.

"Don't act like you don't know!"

Rory smiles lightly to himself, and Ethan is reminded that Rory has been Benny's friend for almost as long as Ethan has. Part of Ethan is jealous, maybe, but more than anything he's grateful that Rory has stuck around, even when Benny and Ethan have pushed him away.

"E!" Benny calls out, "The only reason you are allowed to not be in this room is if you're getting snacks or urinating. So you better be doing one of those or I'm starting the game without you!"

Ethan rolls his eyes, then grabs the so-called nasty chips just to be difficult.

When Ethan walks into the room, Benny gasps dramatically. "I can't _believe_ you!"

To add insult to injury, Ethan opens the bag and eats a chip.

"You disgust me," Benny says, then hands Ethan a controller anyway.

Rory grins again, insisting all three of them can fit on the couch (Benny is eventually demoted to the floor this time), and Rory and Ethan share a look over Benny's shoulders.

 _A constant,_ Ethan thinks. _I hope these nights are a constant for him._

 

 

 

(This is something Ethan has asked only once: "Why do you not live with your dad?"

It had been dark in Benny's room, during one of the few times they slept there instead of Ethan's. If he squinted, he could see the shelf that was full to bursting, the old TV he and Benny had rewired to act as a PC monitor, and the oddly pristine desk, organized and wiped clean. Benny's breathing had remained even and unacknowledging, and Ethan had almost thought he was asleep until Benny laughed like he was fogging up window glass.

"He's a great guy," Benny had whispered, like he had come to this conclusion long ago, perhaps in the same dark room with its familiar edges, repeating the words until they matched pace with his lungs. "But he was never meant to be a dad."

Ethan doesn't say anything after that, but he does reach up a hand, and gives Benny's own a squeeze when he finds where it rests on the bed.

Then he retreats back to his bundle of blankets on the floor, and he doesn't ask again.)

 

 

 

"Tomorrow?" Benny asks, some weeks later, popping his head in the bathroom while Ethan brushes his teeth, and Ethan's not sure whether he should be more surprised that he understands Benny's question or that Benny understands Ethan's aborted, toothpaste-filled nod.

Ethan packs his bag while Benny showers, knowing he will be too busy with Benny being Benny tomorrow to do it then. _I wonder what his dad is like,_ Ethan briefly wonders, then lets it slide to the back his mind as Benny walks back into Ethan's bedroom with a towel on his head. He flops onto his mattress pad, and after tucking the bag next to his nightstand, Ethan takes the initiative to roughly dry Benny's hair and hang the towel over his desk chair. Benny lets out an indignant squawk, in the middle of it, but eventually resigns himself to his fate.

"You know I was talking about meeting my dad, right?" Benny asks, after Ethan has already turned out the lights and crawled into bed. "And staying over at his house with me?"

"Yes," Ethan murmurs, "now go to sleep."

"Tomorrow," Benny whispers.

Ethan hums in response, oddly tired, but doesn't fall asleep until he hears the familiar sleep-cadence of Benny's breathing.

 

 

 

"You would think," Ethan points out as Benny rushes around the room, "you'd just have a permanent overnight bag. This is, like, a weekly thing."

 _"You would think,"_ Benny repeats, poorly mimicking Ethan. "Yeah, well, this way is more exciting."

Ethan raises an eyebrow but refrains from verbally commenting. "You left your deodorant on your bed," he says instead, and hopes Benny's franticness wears off soon.

Benny grabs said deodorant as a car honks outside. Without preamble, Benny throws open his window and yells, "Five more minutes!" before slamming the window closed again, and beginning his search for clean socks.

Five minutes later, Benny pushes Ethan out the door, then greets his dad with a wide grin as he hops into the passenger seat. Ethan slides into the backseat, unsure how to behave. Benny's ridiculousness decides for him.

" – and I hope you don't mind that I brought Ethan. You know, the one I've been telling you about?"

"You didn't tell him beforehand that I was coming?" Ethan cuts in. Benny smiles sheepishly at him, and Ethan is honestly so exasperated with him that he doesn't have the room to overthink the small conversation he has with Benny's dad, an oddly casual thing that Ethan had not been expecting. The three of them eat dinner, talking and laughing, and Benny's dad is… great. They all share the same taste in movies; their conversation is somehow never dull. But every time Benny calls the guy _dad_ it feels like a tiny part of the universe is splintering, like hairline cracks on the glass of a picture frame. Benny's dad is great, and likeable, and he obviously cares about his son. But he isn't a _father._ He isn't the one Benny needed at age six when he made his first friend. He isn't the one Benny needed at age eight when he and Ethan built his computer. He isn't the one Benny needed at age ten when he started shooting up like a weed and couldn't keep track of his limbs.

Benny's dad is a great person, but he has never, _ever_ been the father Benny had needed, had _wanted,_ and it's almost worse than if Benny's dad had simply ignored him.

He's not sure if Benny's dad is aware of that.

(He's not sure if Benny wants his dad to be.)

 

 

 

"We should play _Knights Online,_ " Benny suggests later that night, sprawled across his dad's couch.

"Okay," Ethan says. "Just let me grab my laptop."

He does, and while Ethan's laptop makes their character lag hilariously, and Rory's voice sounds remarkably tinny through the speakers, Benny is still laughing and shouting and although it hurts Ethan's ears, it kind of, maybe, warms his heart.

 

 

 


End file.
